Gosick - Episode 10

Kidnappings, missing gems, and now Kujo snatched away just as he was about to ask for a bed-ridden Victorique's help... what's the connection between all of these events?  To be honest, even after watching this episode as it brings its particular story arc to an end I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway, first thing's first it seems that the kidnapping of Kujo isn't as malicious as first thought, as it appears that this is in fact down to the frightening girl he previously found in a department store basement - a girl named Anastasia who relates her tale of how she was kidnapped by the store staff before being subjected to some kind of demonic ritual.  Kujo tells her to go to the police, and more specifically Grevil, to relate her story, before finding the young street urchin with a sharp memory to further request his help.  With his agreement, it's off to the police station so that the link between recent disappearances and goings-on at the Jiantan store.

As the evidence begins to mount, it's up to Kujo to make the inevitable phone call to Victorique so that she can dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s, which she duly does, using a rather smart little bit of cunning to reveal the department stores hidden room and thus lift the lid on a world of child abduction and the black market selling of priceless, ill-gotten pieces of art.  Thus, another mystery is solved, and all is well.... at least, it is if you ignore Victorique's nightmares.

Whilst all of this is well and good, the biggest problem with Gosick's story arc this time around is that so much is left unexplained.  Although I fancy that some of this is deliberate to pave the way for future episodes (particularly in the case of the magician who reappears in this episode and looks set to become central to developments going forward), other omitted aspects simply feel a little lazy - we never really get to the bottom of why this department store was kidnapping kids alongside its sales of stolen artworks, and "because they could" seems like a rather lame reason to do so.  This kind of hole in the plot makes for a slightly less than satisfactory end to what was otherwise a pretty decent story arc that didn't blow me away but entertained me well enough regardless - it still leaves me feeling like it needs to flesh out its concepts a little more however, which seems to be my recurring criticism of Gosick thus far.